Bird Checklists of the United States

Birds of Massachusetts

Three check box spaces appear to the left of each species listing under
columns labelled A,B and C. These are for checking off species you see at
three different locations or geographic areas. For instance, you might want
to use column A for birds you see in your yard, column B for birds you see
in your town, and column C for birdsd you see in the state (or in New England).
Or, you may choose to use the columns for single dates andn locations. If
you choose this route, rodord the locations and dates in the spaces provided
below. Your data may have considerable scientific value, particularly if it
is recorded at the same sites and dates over a period of years.

This list follws nomenclature and taxonomy established by The A.O.U.
Check-list of North American Birds (7th edition, American Ornithologists'
Union, 1998).

Frequency, rather than abundance, is treated in the following list. Leter
codes adapted from Heinzel et al. (The Birds of Britain and Europe,
J.B. Lippincott Co., Philadelphia, 1972) are used to indicate status, with
upper case letters representing major status and italicized lower case
letters minor status. The general status codes apply to Massachusetts
as a whole and no attempt should be made to relate these codes to specific
geographic locales such as Nantucket or the Connecticut Valley. The following
letters and symbols are used:

Frequency of Occurrence Symbols:

R,r - Permanent Resident
S,s - Summer Resident
W,w - Winter Resident
M,m - Migrant
V - Regular Vagrant, annual
A - Accidental (= Irregular Vagrant, not annual)
i - introduced species
f - expected principally in the fall
SS - Scattered records throughout the year with no particular pattern
* - recorded in eight or fewer of the last 50 years
E - Extinct; once occurred in Massachusetts; now no longer exists
anywhere in the world

A bracketed date following an extinct species (E) is the last year the species
was recorded in Massachusetts. Similarly, a bracketed date following
an extirpated nesting species (T) is the last year the species was known to
breed in Massachusetts.

For ease in use and understanding the list, the symbols appear in two columns.
The first column (N.S.), appearing to the left of each species, denotes
the Nesting Status (if any) of each species. The second column, appearing
to the right of each species, denotes Major/Minor Frequency of Occurrence,
and also includes the introduced designation (i) if the species was introduced.
To cite three examples using this code:

"t - Wilson's Phalarope - Mf"

means that the species nests irregularly in Massachusetts, is primarily
a migrant, and is expected principally in the fall.

"r+ - Common Loon - sWM"

means that the species is a rare and local annual nester known in Massachusetts
chiefly as both a migrant and a winter resident, although a minor summer population
occurs.

"t - Yellow-breasted Chat - swM"

means the species nests irregularly, appears in Massachusetts chiefly as
a migrant, but that there are small numbers present in summer and winter.